Happy Valentine’s Day!
Well, with that out of the way, let me get on with it! This Travel Tuesday is going to be more along the lines of my recent Antarctica posts (see Days 1-3 and Day 4) than a regular Travel Tuesday post. But, since it is Tuesday and I’m talking about travel, this post gets an extra special name!
As I mentioned yesterday, Day 5 was another highlight of the trip.
The morning was a beautiful zodiac tour in Foyn Harbour. A little harbour off the Antarctic peninsula. By 10am, when our zodiac left the boat, the skies had cleared and we were in for a treat.
Icebergs. Seals. Towering mountains coming directly out of the water. A grounded whaling ship. Foyn Harbour had it all and it is easier to show you then to tell you.
And yes. This is really the colour. I love light.
The expressions on the faces of all of us told the whole story. This zodiac trip was freaking awesome.
And then we were met on board by delicious, milky hot chocolate. And, just like yesterday, that was just the morning!
Throughout our (once again four course) lunch, we navigated towards our next stop, Cuverville Island, and the clouds came back out in full force. Although we arrived at Cuverville Island early (and well in advance of our expected landing time) our landing was delayed.
Why? You ask. Well, it was because of these awesome-sauce humpback whales who decided to give us a show, dancing and trumpeting, and just being pretty much awesome.
They were this close.
Seriously.
Everyone on the boat was pretty excited about this! (I wonder which side the whales are on… not.)
After the whale show was done, it was time for our landing in Cuverville Island. The scenery (and the penguins) here were just amazing.
The baby gentoos were much younger than those we had seen at Brown Bluff (we were much further south, which explains the delayed breeding season). So, though there were no gentoos to play with, it was pretty fun watching the really little babies.
And this guy. Who was so cute (and skeptical) I couldn’t handle it.
Ok. More than that guy. There were just so many penguins!
At the end of the (once again, several hour long) landing, our amazing zodiac driver took us through a tour of the icebergs surrounding the island on the way back to the boat.
Pretty. Freaking. Amazing.
Click the link for more Day 5 pictures from in Antarctica. Check back on Thursday for Day 6 and 7, and Friday for Days 8 to 11. Tomorrow I’m going to take a mini-Antarctica break to talk about homemade peaches and cream oatmeal. Three words. So. So. Good.
In other exciting news, I’m on my way to the airport to pick up my mom for a week of fun in the (hopefully) sun! We’ll hang out in Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, and Colonia.
Wow. Just…wow. Whales, penguins, blue icebergs…amazing stuff. It’s hard to believe this is all on one planet! So, so beautiful…keep those posts a coming! :)
I totally agree! On Thursday, I get into how one landing was cancelled, and we were ok with it. It gave us a chance to just catch up on all our emotions and everything we had seen so far! I also noticed all your pins of these images! So sweet, thanks!
I cannot get over how gorgeous the landscape is in the photos. The colours are stunning! Who would have thought there were so many hues in the wintery south. Incredible. I would have freaked out to be THAT close to humpback whales! It’s a dream of mine to see them in their natural habitat. I’m going to Hawaii next year to do a whale watching tour :) Although, now I am seriously contemplating Antarctica! :) Thanks for sharing your adventure. I’ve loved reading about it.
Hi Courtney! Thanks for your comment! The craziest thing about the colours… they are actually those colours! And the whales, it was amazing to see them so close, I understand it’s virtually guaranteed to see whales on these trips, having them close is very likely, but having them dance and perform is a bit more rare. I’ve heard good things about Hawaii and Mexico for humpbacks too. The neatest thing is that you could actually see the same whales, since they travel so far every year!
It seems like you had perfect luck – easing crossing, penguin in lap, dancing whales! So incredible!
We really were amazingly lucky! And I’m never the person that lucks out like that (especially not with wildlife), so I had this dumbfounded expression on my face. Pretty much the entire time!